The venue being prepared for the convocation in Ranchi on Wednesday. Picture by Hardeep Singh

Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar will spend six hours in the state capital on November 10, of which two precious hours will be devoted for students of Ranchi University at the varsity’s convocation.

The Speaker will land at Birsa Munda Airport at 1.30pm on a Jet Airways flight from New Delhi, and head straight for Raj Bhavan where she will have lunch and rest a bit before leaving for the convocation ceremony slated to begin at 3pm.

She will be at the university till 5pm, and is scheduled to fly back to the national capital by Go Air’s Ranchi—Delhi flight at 7.30pm.

“The Speaker of the Lok Sabha will be handing over medals to the 36 gold medallists in different subjects before leaving the place at 5pm,” confirmed Ranchi University pro vice chancellor V.P. Sharan.

The ceremony would be held at the grounds near the postgraduate social science department of the varsity beside Ranchi College.

As many as 3,500 students will receive their certificates during the convocation ceremony.

Last year, President Pratibha Patil had attended the university’s convocation ceremony. She also had inaugurated the Institute of Basic Sciences situated in front of Ranchi College during her visit. In her speech, she had asked the educational institutions to keep away from ragging as it was “criminal” and “disgraceful”. She also had asked students to keep away from drugs.

Meanwhile, this is the first time Meira Kumar would be coming to attend any function of Ranchi University.

Ranchi University, which in the past had failed to hold convocation regularly, has nearly succeeded in regularising the anomaly. The varsity officials also are inviting notable persons as chief guests for the occasion in order to increase the importance of the ceremony.